Includes score and instructions.
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Review from Percussive Notes (2021):
Point Lobos Shore Trail
David Macbride
Graphic notation comes in many forms. Some, like Xenakis’ “Psappha,” take a mathematical approach to notate every sound and when they occur. Others, like Earle Brown’s “December 1952,” draw a picture with symbols and leave much of the interpretation to the performer. “Point Lobos Shore Trail” by David Macbride takes the latter approach but sets a guideline that the only instruments permitted be among the most delicate that percussionists encounter: wind chimes.
The notated page is simple in its design. It is a sketch of two oceanic waves and a handful of birds set in front of a sunset, meant to be the Point Lobos Shore Trail in California. This sketch is set on a rectangular grid in which the vertical axis denotes volume and the horizontal represents the time. Macbride gives suggestions as to how to interpret these axes, such as an appropriate performance length and where the threshold of audibility is, but the performer has a lot of freedom outside of these points. The style of chimes used and how each of the different events are treated are left to the discretion of the performer. As such, each performance of this piece will be one-of-a-kind.
Pieces such as this are interesting to approach for a formally trained percussionist. It does not require the standard procedure of rigorous practice; rather, it requires an intimate knowledge of an obscure instrument, and a performance approach more akin to painting. In the hands of a musician who understands this methodology, along with having the necessary maturity and patience to prepare it with such a delicate instrument, Macbride’s composition has the possibility of creating some truly beautiful performances.
—Kyle Cherwinski
